Avenue of the Roses

A documentary filmmaker collects portraits of change along 82nd Avenue.

STREET STORIES: “We were the little cluster of Chinese restaurants that were on Southeast 82nd,” says Cindy Louis, whose grandfather opened the Canton Grill in 1944. “There are so many Chinese restaurants over here now.” - IMAGE: Ivy Lin

I considered them
tourist attractions that I wanted nothing to do with. I grew up in
Taiwan with Chinese food and Chinese culture—what’s new to see in any
city’s Chinatown?

I’ve been living in
the U.S. since 1989, and in Portland for the past decade. But it wasn’t
until 2008, when I produced my first documentary, Pig Roast & Tank of Fish,
that I began to explore Portland’s Chinatown and sensed a shift in
myself from being a Chinese in America to a Chinese-American.

At the time, I didn’t
know our Chinatown had been the second largest in the country during
the early 1900s. By 2008, many Chinese restaurants (including the
legendary Hung Far Low) and businesses had either closed or moved. And
there was already talk about a “new Chinatown” emerging along 82nd
Avenue, becoming a popular destination for authentic Chinese food and a
bountiful source of hard-to-find Asian grocery items.

Before my mother
moved to Portland from Monterey Park (aka “Little Taipei”) in Los
Angeles five years ago, my experience on 82nd was restricted to
occasional visits to Fubonn (the largest Asian shopping center in
Oregon) for my fix of I Mei coconut butter cookies, my supply of
dumpling dipping sauce, as well as my semiannual invitations to the
Chinatown Old-Timers Luncheon at Super King Buffet.

But I began to
experience 82nd more often when I accompanied my mom to the Chinese Free
Methodist Church of Portland, located at Southeast 84th Avenue and
Morrison Street. There is something very profound and heartwarming about
pigging out on Chinese food with the congregation right after church
service.

Long Nguyen is manager of Thanh Son Tofu, a Vietnamese grocery, where he makes fresh tofu daily. “During my first year of business here, I saw a lot of police cars, a lot of traffic and car dealers,” he says. “Now I see the street is getting better, but...every day if I don’t hear police sirens, 82nd is not 82nd.”

IMAGE: Ivy Lin

WW asked me to
explore the changes along 82nd. I focused on the portion of the street
between Northeast Glisan Street and Southeast Holgate Boulevard, a
2.5-mile section that passes through the Montavilla, South Tabor,
Foster-Powell and Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhoods.

It’s still a
commercial corridor of strip malls, used-car lots and gas stations, but
the area has become one of the most ethnically diverse in Oregon, with
many Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Latino restaurants and businesses.
One businessman told me 82nd is so diverse it’s not right to call it a
“new Chinatown.”

The result of my
reporting is a 22-minute documentary where I share a visit to my
mother’s church; meet Cindy Louis, who (with degrees in oceanography and
chemistry) now runs Canton Grill, a restaurant opened by her
grandfather in 1944; and attend Slavic Church Emmanuel, located in the
former Eastgate Theater, with a congregation of at least 600.

SPIRITUAL SERVICE: Joseph Yeung, pastor at the Chinese Free Methodist Church of Portland, says the lunch of traditional foods served after Sunday services have helped nonbelievers feel more engaged in the church. “We see this lunch service as a form of ministry,” he says.

IMAGE: Ivy Lin

Ivy Lin is a documentary filmmaker whose work also includes Come Together Home,
a film about the journey home of the remains of early Chinese
immigrants from Portland’s Lone Fir Cemetery. See more of her work at
ivylinstoryteller.com.